The Basis for Civil Liberties in the American Colonies, English Liberties, Printed with the Magna Carta: 1682 First Edition

Henry Care Magna Carta

First Edition

Care, Henry. English Liberties: Or, the Freeborn Subject's Inheritance, Containing I. Magna Charta. First edition. 1682. One of the very first law books printed in colonial America presenting England’s “fundamental laws” as the inheritance of free subjects. Issued during the Exclusion Crisis, the work articulated principles of jury trial, religious liberty, and limitations on governmental authority that later resonated in Anglo-American constitutional development. This volume contains the first printing for American readers of the Magna Carta and other fundamental documents of individual liberty in Anglo-American law, including "seminal documents on the separation of church and state, the right to religious liberty, trial by jury and other founding principles." The volume became influential among colonial readers and American founders, with Thomas Jefferson owning copies in his library. Its presentation of Magna Carta as declaratory of enduring liberties helped shape early modern and colonial understandings of constitutional rights. London: Printed by G. Larkin, for Benjamin Harris in 1680. Full contemporary sheep boards, 228 pages. Measures approximately: 5.5” x 3.25". With woodcut-engraved headpiece and initial. This first edition features a printing of the Magna Carta, "a symbol of political liberty and the foundation of constitutional government" (Grams). English Liberties aimed to provide uneducated laypeople with information about the law and their rights, praising England's 'fundamental laws [as] coeval with government' and describing the Magna Carta as 'Declamatory of the principal grounds of the Fundamental Laws and Liberties of England.' Thomas Jefferson found the work so important that he held two copies of this title in his library.

Schwoerer writes that English Liberties influence is "in the writings of the founding fathers of the United States; Samuel Adams, John Adams, John Dickinson and Alexander Hamilton…” This edition precedes the first American edition, which came out in 1721. Extremely rare in the first edition, especially anonymously published by Care and complete with all advertisements as originally issued. This copy is in its original state. Leather unglued from spine and front cover of the wood board, which has partially perished. Inside text block complete. Some tiny worming mostly affecting four lines of text from p.30 to p.50; all text still easily readable. Initial blank leaf damaged. Pages are slightly toned and otherwise clean. In good condition only but complete and very rare.

Item #17729

Price: $5,500.00